Chelsea: Breaking Down the Blues' 8 Biggest Matchups Before Christmas

In your average football calendar, Christmas is usually looked upon as a landmark part of the year when any side can turn their season around, and Chelsea are no different.

The festive period generally heralds in a colder part of the year in the English top flight, a climate in which some teams have the knack to thrive.

As such, the Blues will be keen to grab all the points they can before 2013 is ushered in.

Despite the comfortable settling in of Eden Hazard, the changed form of Fernando Torres and the defensive heroics of Branislav Ivanovic, the next three months still have a lot of twists and turns for the current league leaders.

With that in mind, let’s preview the hardest obstacles Chelsea will face before that wonderful time of year that is December 25th.

Tottenham Hotspur (Away)

Laurence Griffiths/Getty ImagesAndre Villas Boas

When: 20th October

From the best of north London’s representatives to what is, at the moment, its worst, Tottenham haven’t got off to the start that they would have wanted but have the talent to recover in time for this game.

The October fixture will be Andre Villas Boas’ first encounter against the side with whom he endured such a torrid time, and wouldn’t it just be poetic if the Portuguese manager pulled out a result against Chelsea?

Spurs are yet to grab a win this season but made some major squad acquisitions over the summer, and another month may just be enough for those new faces to start gelling.

Since replacing AVB, RDM has seen nothing but success and this will be the truest test of who really rules above the other acronyms.

Manchester City (Home)

Possibly one of the hardest home matches Roberto Di Matteo will come upon all season, never mind before Christmas, Manchester City will challenge as we can predict they will.

Roberto Mancini’s team have already dropped points this season after drawing with Liverpool at Anfield, but have scored at least two goals in every game.

This record isn’t really a wonder when a team has Sergios Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko all in one squad, but is impressive nonetheless.

Chelsea will need John Terry back amongst their ranks if they are to cope with the Citizens’ onslaught and this match between two of England’s giants promises to weed out who is the stronger of the two spending titans of the Premier League.

Sunderland (Away)

One of the Blues’ more difficult trips before Christmas, traveling to the colder temperatures of the north-east is never the easiest part of a team’s campaign.

Last season, the Londoners managed to grab a 2-1 win in this fixture, but that was before Martin O’Neill came in and staged his mid-season turnaround for the Black Cats.

Now in his first full season as manager at the Stadium of Light, O’Neill is yet to lose a fixture and has taken hard-earned points away from the Emirates and Liberty Stadiums, neither of which are easy trips.

The Northern Irishman is no stranger to these kind of matchups and will use some of those excellent man-managing skills to prepare his side for the game ahead.

December on Wearside is never the warmest time of the year, and the strong British contingent in Sunderland’s ranks will undoubtedly be better prepared for the weather than some of the continentals in Chelsea’s squad.

As a result, it will be interesting to see how the likes of Hazard & co. cope with the murky trip.